I have been playing around with making a wand for the last few days using some very nice wood I received from another Café member. There are some smaller pieces that are perfectly sized for wand tips. My idea is to attach the tips to the larger piece for the shaft and then turn the whole thing as one piece on the lathe. I've tried drilling holes into the tips and forming matching tennons on the shaft, but the tennons are too thin and break easily. I would like to get a tight joint and maybe even include a bone or mother of pearl transition piece (Something like you would see on a pool cue), but so far what I am getting is a weak joint and broken wood :)

Any advice?

Thanks,
Richard

Message:

Posted by: raywitko (Feb 4, 2008 12:45PM)

Center drill holes in both pieces and join with a small dowel and glue. Carefully clamp and let dry. Before turning sand or rasp blank to get rid of rough edges.
Ray

Message:

Posted by: billfromoregon (Feb 4, 2008 06:53PM)

Ray is right. For my wands I drill a 1/4" hole in both pieces and use a dowel pin. I have used vegetable ivory and other woods between the body and the tips and will offer a couple of tips. Mother of pearl, bone, ivory and thin pieces of wood are very easily broken (speaking from experience) so I will SLIGHTLY enlarge the hole with a rolled up piece of sandpaper so that these pieces fit easily.

I use either epoxy or fastcap glue, which is a type of super glue. You could also use gorilla glue. Make sure that the dowel fits tightly in the hole - I use dowel pins because they are sized pretty accurately (you can pick these up at Woodcrafters at NE 6th and Davis or at Woodcraft in Tigard, or any number of other locations there in PDX. Woodcrafters carries lots of small pieces of exotic wood that are perfect for making wands). Clamp it carefully and make sure to let it dry thoroughly.

Ray is also right about smoothing the pieces out before turning - if you leave the smaller pieces sticking out, your chisel can catch these pieces and tear out a chunk that will go past the body and the tip and you won't be able to fix it. One other suggestion is to finish the piece while still on the lathe - this way you can get an excellent finish and the friction from the spinning wand helps to push the finish into the wood and burnishes and dries the finish. I then cut the ends off and finish the ends after I remove the stock from the lathe. Good luck -

Bill

Message:

Posted by: Jeff Dial (Feb 8, 2008 12:24AM)

If you think you might ever do Bob Read's Penultimate Cups and Balls you may want to consider attaching one of the tips with a magnet so you can do a wand tip load.